Leaving Hong Kong

Did we really just leave Hong Kong after a mere 36 hours? Did Olivia and I really do orientations for international business courses at 0800 and 0920 this morning? Will we really be in Vietnam 2 days from now? The answers to all these questions and more will be revealed in time!

An unbelievable number of things happened in our short stay in Hong Kong. I'll try a list instead of my usual narrative to keep this post manageable. Here goes:

• Our bargaining skills did not improve, but our enjoyment of the market (this time the Temple Street Night Market on Hong Kong Island) did.
• Invitations to museums not yet open to the public are not to be turned down, especially when issued by interport lecturers in the faculty lounge the day before landing in Hong Kong. We spent an amazing couple of hours on a private tour given by the director of the new Hong Kong Maritime Museum, right on Victoria Harbor. 
• Dim Sum is just the right snack after a private museum tour, or any time, really.
• Trolling around Hong Kong on a Chinese "junk" boat for plastic debris is an interesting way to spend a day, especially when the collection process is part of an SAS field program run by a very engaging SAS biology faculty member and several specialists from an ocean recovery program.
• Grandpa came back from a wonderful SAS trip to Yunnan and agrees that two days before Chinese New Year is a pretty exciting time to be in any part of China.

We are back on the ship today, sailing toward Vietnam. The seas are not as calm as they were on our transit from Shanghai to Honk Kong, but the swells are large and rolling and we should be used to it by now!

Here's a photo taken right in front of where the MV Explorer docked in Hong Kong. The drums are decorations for Chinese New Year, lots of people banged on them for luck as they walked by. Funny that my outfit matched the color scheme, it was not planned!