Great Escapes 2017: Hanging out in Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong after 14 hours of travel and Bill gave us an hour to freshen up before he opened the leg.  We were all a little woozy from the time change but determined to stay awake all day – and get points – and beat the jet lag.  Highlights from our favorite scavenges (we do probably 20+ things each day, so I'm only describing the favorites):

First scavenge out of the box was to eat dim sum and dumplings at a giant restaurant on the 2^nd floor of City Hall.  Whoever owns that place has a gold mine ... they probably feed a few thousand people a day.  Greg and Catherine came with us and then headed off to conquer the city.

Great food and bitter tea with a significant amount of grass / shrub remnants in the tea cup. 

Scavenge # 8: Find the wounded beasts at the foot of the HSBC building.  Turns out there are two giant lions statues that were hit with shrapnel and bullets in World War II during the Battle of Hong Kong (1944).  They still bear the scars to prove it.

We had to take a skinny double-decker electric bus-like vehicle called “British trams”) around town

Scavenge # 32:  We had to visit the Foreign Correspondent’s Club to find a specific photograph. The FCC is essentially a members only bar for ex-pat reporters and press corp. So, first, we had to talk our way into the place since it's a private club.  But our real mission was to find the original photo – that is obviously famous because of Time Magazine – of the last helicopter leaving Saigon as Vietnam fell.  And there it was. Just hanging on the wall.  Throngs of people crowded on the ladder trying to get taken out of the country as America flew away and left them all behind. So powerful. 

On the second day in Hong Kong we got an early start on a ferry to Macau.  

And yes, Macau is more than just Las  Vegas for Asia (although there are an awful lot of casinos).  Like this old church facade

And a very colorful temple that you arrive at by bicycle rickshaw.

After Macau we headed to Aberdeen (a suburb water side town with a very British name) to catch a sampan to Lamma island.  What we quickly learned is a "sampan" is a wooden boat made of half-rotten wood held together with twine and bamboo sticks.  There are tire bumpers strapped to all sides which does not inspire confidence as it appears the sampan captains routinely drive their vessels into stationery objects.  

Less than a hour at sea later, we arrived at Lamma island (which appears to have only a row of seafood restaurants and little or nothing else).  But we got to finally sit down for a few minutes and actually eat something. 

An unexpected “WOW” scavenge was to find the Innovation tower at HK Polytechnic.  The Polytechnic is a famous technical and design university with over 30,000 students. Innovation tower is actually a creative design classroom building in the center of campus. It was designed by famed architect Zara Hadid (You may have heard of her: she’s from Iraq, knighted by the Queen of England so she’s a Dame, died last year of a heart attack in Miami).  The building looks like a cruise liner fell from the sky.

Hong Kong was an exhilarating - but exhausting - two days. My Fit Bit says we walked 11.4 miles the first day and 9.7 the second.  I would say it’s a great weight loss program except I’m steadfastly eating chocolate and dessert to keep my “stamina” up.

WE ARE MOVING ON NOW TO HANOI, VIETNAM... Stay tuned.