Almost Time to Sail Away Once More

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. 
Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore. Dream. Discover.  Mark Twain

After all these many months of planning and researching, the time has come to actually sail off on our trip.  Teri, Pat, and I have been to Hong Kong several times before.  Thus to a degree, we are comfortable and know what to expect. Kacy on the other hand has never visited there before but she is willing to explore the marvels that Hong Kong has.  I admire her willingness to do so as she will be akin to (with apologies to Robert Heinlein), a "Stranger in a Strange Land". I am very interested in hearing how she feels about being in Asia. To see something with "new" eyes is a rare experience and perhaps I will see Hong Kong in a different light on this trip through Kacy's eyes.

Hong Kong as seen from Victoria Peak

Rudyard Kipling once wrote "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet....."  But in Hong Kong and Singapore for that matter, I see a melding of Western culture, the British in particular, and Chinese culture that have produced two of the most dynamic economies in the world.  I am very interested to see how the political institutions in these two cities will develop in the years ahead; Hong Kong as it is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and Singapore as it is a small island nation at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula.  In these two cities, East is meeting West.  What will the future be like?  But as Mark Strand said “The future is always beginning now” and we shall see soon enough.