Emigrating to Hong Kong (on the Balmoral !!)

A little progress report for those who might remember us from Balmoral's wonderful 'Far East Explorer' earlier this year. We had decided to leave UK and chose this particular cruise as the most exciting and cost-effective conveyance. For us therefore, the journey, one-way with 190Kg of stuff, still remains a 'Far East Explorer' as having jumped ship in Hong Kong (March) we're still there ! Travel by ship is a great way to emigrate (shades of a bygone era) and if anyone's interested I've started a monthly contribution to the Nottingham cultural magazine LeftLion, here's the link to the first which mentions Fred and the journey. Do get in touch if you remember us, enjoy !

http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/title/hong-kong-diaries-1--far-east-from-notts-/id/7547

Sounds a great way to emigrate. Very much like the post 2nd WW method of relocating abroad. Much more gentle that flying. I quite envy you.

You're so right Parsman it was a great way to go, slow is best ! We were really quite surprised how we got all the stuff in the smallest of cabins, it absorbed all that baggage without trace ! Ship was the only way we could have done this journey, we have done a container ship in the past but their timing can be a bit loose and Fred was perfectly placed. Another good thing was arriving in HK without jetlag and being able to gad about easily - in fact after dropping all our stuff at a hotel we had a nice day with two shipmates as we showed them a bit of 'remote' Hk - great !!

When we returned from working in West Africa we explored the possibility of relocating by cargo vessel. It would have been excellent but the arrival date in the UK was a trifle "iffy" so sadly we flew home.

Best of luck.

You are right of course Parsman, they are very iffey, in fact the agents say that if you want to catch such a ship you have to allow a couple of weeks either side which is okay if you don't have schedules to meet. We booked our container ship travel via Strand Voyages in London but even then we had to change a few things as the shipping company changed route - ha ha, the joys of international travel, take care and best wishes !