Point of Exit

I almost forgot to take the picture and I'd be kicking myself now if I had. Crammed in among the throng of shops selling North Fake products, pashminas, maps, photocopies of Lonely Planet issues, and Buddha statues in Kathmandu was this restaurant:

Now this is just damn funny. See, there's a delicious little independent restaurant in Narragansett, Rhode Island, right around the corner from where Jillian and I lived for the year before joining Peace Corps. It serves amazing breakfasts and vegetarian food. It's called Crazy Burger and if you don't live in southern Rhode Island (talk about a qualifier--that's like describing a very small pygmy horse) you've probably never heard of it. But there, on the storefront in Kathmandu, is the logo I remember so well. Now there's some copy write theft I didn't see coming. North Face, sure, but Crazy Burger?

Our rafting trip from Kathmandu was cancelled and Jillian and I boarded a plane for Hong Kong. We had to pass through the city anyway on our return home, so we simply moved up the first leg of the trip to spend some time in this thoroughly Western locale. Jillian remarked that it felt like the perfect transition back to America--Hong Kong is orderly, clean, and expensive--after a few months of, well, the opposite of those things.

In no other area is the gap between Hong Kong and places like Vietnam and India more obvious than in transportation. Hong Kong's system of subways, light rail trains, and buses is immaculate and efficient and, servicing a population of over seven million, the best big-city public system I've ever seen. And at one dollar a ride, it's subway is less than half the cost of New York's.

The trains in India seemed a million miles away. And they can stay there.

We hopped around Hong Kong, taking in as much as possible so as to avoid staying as few nights as possible (a hostel there ran us $40, as compared to $10 in Nepal for a much nicer room). The "thing" to do in Hong Kong is a ride up the steeply tracked tram to Victoria Peak which overlooks the city. I was in Hong Kong nine years ago and the Peak was then topped with only a viewing platform; now there's a giant, exclusive mall up there. The weather wasn't too cooperative, but it was a pleasant afternoon anyway, and through the clouds we could still see across the water to Kowloon (northern Hong Kong) where we had spent a morning walking through the jade markets.

But more than anything, we spent our time in Hong Kong reflecting on a very tiring and very fun trip. Now after two years in Macedonia and three months traveling to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, and Nepal, we're finally ready to take a deep breath and settle down with regular jobs back home in America.

Then again...

Cloudy Hong Kong, from Victoria Peak

A view of the city from the ferry to Kowloon