Arriving in Hong Kong this morning, I realize that I’ll never get tired of the feeling I get as I approach land after being on the water. It occurs to me that I recognize this feeling from childhood. I have the same excitement I felt as a child arriving on the little island where I was lucky to go every summer growing up. A mail boat would take us 40 minutes out into the Penobscot Bay and drop us at a dock on the rocky Maine coast. Friends we hadn’t seen for a year would be waiting to greet us and we were barely able to contain our excitement (though we did, under the threat of Buster’s stare), anticipating the coming weeks of water, the huckleberries, beach fires and freedom. It feels like a similar treat, arriving in one city after another that we get to experience.
Hong Kong is a mix - rickety buildings along the outer shoreline, low boats piled with nets and stacks of supplies, ferries sliding past one another and sparkling skyscrapers dancing with LEDs. We’ve just gone through the immigration process - quick with 109 of us - and are awaiting disembarkation. My ARNP friend is taking over call and I plan to hike Lion’s Rock or Dragon’s Back today with a friend. I plan to meet my family back here tonight (they’ll soon be en route from Beijing) for the first of our Lee-family recommended meals. So fun to think of M, C, L and L calling this city home. (C has me completely scared about monkeys, though. I’m not down either.)