Saturday night was spent on the Star Aquarius, one of the cruise ships from Star Cruises. Covering certain things for BC Magazine so will only go into certain other things here.

This one does a nightly cruise to nowhere – out into international waters so that people can dive into the casino and gamble all night long. (I lost HK$20 in a slot machine and was finished. I’m not a good gambler and I work too hard for my money to just throw it away like that.)

We had fun. It’s not too expensive for what you get – the cheapest rooms cost around HK$870 per person for a small cabin on a lower deck. Upper deck suites with balconies can run into the thousands though.

Here’s a shot through out cabin window before the ship pulled out.

Touring the boat, looking back at HK island as we make our way through the harbor.

Champs Bar – with a little combo entertaining – well, the seats were empty. Note that raised wooden thing to the right of the stage? On each side of the stage there’s a jacuzzi, sit and schvitz while you drink and listen to the band.

This is just weird – an outdoor pool bar that’s shut down because no one in Hong Kong likes to use it. I’m told it’s huge in Singapore – when the boat fills up with Singaporeans and Australians (hi Phil!) they like to party, but people in HK don’t.

Looking down at the car park at Ocean Terminal, where people line up daily to take photos of the HK island skyline. But the light was really crappy all day – very hazy – not sure what these people are gonna get.

And a look over at the still-under-construction ICC.

Nice pool.
Piano player in the lounge bar.

The entertainment kicked off with – I kid you not – two members of the housekeeping staff demonstrating creative towel folding techniques.

The star attraction on this cruise, a Malaysian singer whose name escapes me. But the lounge was full when she was onstage and she went through the audience and said hello and shook the hand of everyone who was there. (You don’t see a band? There wasn’t one – she was singing to a pre-taped backing track.)


This is why I was there – the Hong Kong Gaming Club was holding their first poker tournament at sea.

Some of the dealers were quite cute.


Of course Spiderman was there.

The Captain of the Aquarius and his first mate – of course the Captain’s the one with the beard.

The thing is – once the ship hits international waters, they cut the engines and just drift. And even such a big boat starts seriously rocking, and not in a good way. My gf started feeling seriously seasick and it was getting to me a little bit too. So we had to leave the tournament and go to the top deck and outside, stretch out in the fresh air for awhile till we got our heads back.

Following that, we were in need of refreshment so back down to the lounge bar, where the trio we’d seen earlier at Champs was entertaining a small crowd with pop songs in Cantonese, Mandarin and English.


After they finished, we hit the duty free, got some snacks for the room, and an early end to the evening. Not sure that we’d rush to do this again, but I’d been curious about it for years and we did have fun.

Hongkie Town
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