We’ve had our three nights at the Charterhouse but because we arrived early (6 AM) and won’t head for the airport until 6 PM we’ve really had four full days in Hong Kong. We had a fairly well defined first three days: two on the Big Bus and one sailing off to Macau but we didn’t start figuring out our plan for this day until breakfast this morning.

Actually, I started thinking about it at 1:30 AM when my cell phone rang with some overly cheerful recorded lady offering to improve the hit rate on my blog. “I’ll tell you whose hit rate is gonna get improved, lady,” I thought. I did some preliminary research at 5 AM when we both woke up unable to sleep. We did screen stuff until 6 by which time we both fell back asleep.

Judy had already staked her claim to part of today: a lazy morning. So we slept ‘til 9 and made it down to the breakfast buffet before it shut down at 10:30. We packed. And were checked out by the Noon deadline.

Here was our plan: walk a few blocks to the quaint trolley line with its narrow cars (about a dime fare for seniors, two bits for young ‘uns), travel 8 stops or so and then walk to the Star Ferry terminal. Big Bus had given us ferry tickets (seniors ride for free but whatever). The Lonely Planet had gushed about the wonderful Tsim Sha Tsui East Promenade, the History Museum, Cultural Center, Art Museum, Science Museum – all right there in one easily walked stretch along the river with magnificent views of Hong Kong Island across Victoria Bay. What a deal.

Sometimes in the tourist racket you come to realize that you’re ready to move on, that you’ve seen 80% and the last 20% is going to take some work. Maybe there was a little of that working on us today. But then again half of the attractions Lonely Planet gushed over were closed because it’s Tuesday and the other half were under reconstruction, had been since 2016 and will be through most of 2018.

But you know what? The trolley ride was a blast, sitting up top with the windows open and watching the lunch-time throngs shopping their fool heads off. Boy-o-boy do these HKers have the shopping bug, and bad!

We got off at the correct stop (I tracked our location on GPS) and found ourselves in the Central district, which I’d guess is the heart of the financial district. Lots of fast walking, well-dressed youngish, important looking (or at least self-important looking) people typing on or talking on their smart phones.

Our guide in Macao said, proudly, that the pace of life in Macau is much slower and laid back than Hong Kong. “In Hong Kong they walk StepStepStepStepStepStep. Here in Macao it’s more like “Step . . . Step . . .Step . . . Step.” She’s got Hong Kongers pegged, I’d say. And they don’t suffer doddering old folks with cameras dangling from their necks. “Keep moving or get out of my way!”

We knew where we wanted to go but had trouble finding a way to cross the street to get on the right track. Finally we looked up and saw a marvelous walkway, much like the skyway system in Minneapolis except this one is open air. Shops everywhere, of course. Hong Kong has as many fancy watch shops as New England has Dunkin’ Donut shops.

The skyway led directly to the Star Ferry terminal. They run continuously from Hong Kong Island across the bay to Kowloon. The terminal there is adjacent to the aforementioned arts area. A pleasant ride, again with the windows open, of 15 minutes or so.

Despite the construction, which caused detours and produced a cacophony of noise and a continual stream of construction workers and vehicles getting in our way our stroll wasn’t all that bad. We stopped a couple of times to sit and watch the boat traffic on the river and the people traffic on the walkways. A pleasant, laidback kind of afternoon, just what we needed.

We took a different Star Ferry back to the island, one that landed at the Convention Center, and which is directly south of our (former) hotel. By now it was pushing 3 so lunch was beginning to sound good. Off we went in search of a noodle shop to cure Judy’s sudden noodle shop craving.

The walkway out of the Convention Center proved to be another construction maze that we had to navigate. Our limo driver this evening told us they are building a train terminal. Turns out they are building a high speed train system that will connect Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, Macau, Shanghai and Beijing. It looks as if this “One China” thing is more than just talk. Nothing like connecting the seat of government with the hinterlands that aren’t 100% convinced they want to be governed. And, by the way, all the mainliners will have easy access to the gaming tables in Macau. A win-win-win? We’ll see.

We found a place for lunch in what I would describe as somewhere between Denny’s and Applebee’s. Lots of people eating there was a good sign. We ordered a crunchy noodle dish and sweet and sour pork. It turns out that sweet and sour pork is popular in the US because the early Chinese immigrants came from Canton where sweet and sour pork is the mac and cheese dish: something everyone loves, even if they won’t admit it.

So now it’s almost 5 PM. The car is supposed to come at 6 so nothing left to do but walk back to the hotel and wait. Rather than take our original path along Hennesy I suggested we walk up one block and then across to see what was there. Low and behold, we stumbled across a multi-street open-air market. There were stalls selling all kinds of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, spices, you name it. It was a busy place; lots of people picking up what’s for dinner, I’d guess.

So we sat for 45 minutes, the driver came 10 minutes early, got us to the airport, we checked in and now we’re sitting in the departure lounge waiting for our 9:50 flight to Yangon (Rangoon). It’ll be a long night: with the time change we’ll arrive in Yangon at midnight, which is 1:30 AM HK time, after a 3:30 hour flight. We’ll need toothpicks to keep the eyelids open at tomorrow’s Welcoming Breakfast.

With luck, I’ll get this out on the airport wi-fi before we leave. I’m told Internet service in Myanmar is spotty at best so if you don’t hear from us soon don’t worry, just relax and enjoy the silence.