Hong Kong: Yes Please.

Hong Kong! Hong Kong! Hong Kong!

What a glorious, world-class city!! I’d never given it any thought before, but the city is spectacular!! The sea and the mountains side-by-side, one of my favorites. A glitzy but cultured downtown tucked right up against impressive peaks and lush jungle. A densely packed populance, but 70% of the small territory is wild and rugged. You can even backpack and camp in Hong Kong proper!!

Great to wander and chat with Barrett for a few days, and fantastic to stay with Stephanie, a world-class hostess. So fun to see the adventures and lives of A-100 classmates around the world in a 100 different jobs and places.

Culinary highlights: build-your-own-burger and Blue Smoke barbeque.

Nightlife highlights: requesting Rasputin at Big Al’s (and getting it!) and a coverband on Lan Kwai Fong Street.

Adventure highlight: hiking from Central to the Peak, a two-hour summit. It’s a thousand-foot elevation gain on beautiful, mostly-deserted trails.

Sporting highlight: enjoying Stephanie’s Armed Forces Network cable access to watch the Badgers pound UNLV in the season opener! Looks like Bucky and Big Red newcomer Russell Wilson are in for a great season!

Cultural Analysis highlight: tallying the amount of men, both local and foreign, walking along the Avenue of the Stars boardwalk with and without satchels. The final tally after a sample size of eighty? Fifty with, only thirty without.

Socio-Economic Analysis highlight: probing friendly Filipinas – with questions, mind you – and missing the train to China due to an early-morning breakfast and subsequent monsoon. Oops...