GETTING WARMED UP

A CHANGE OF SCENERY

One day out of class with the little kiddies yelping at your heals "teacher, teacher" all day we hit the streets of Hong Kong! Fantastic! Right? I mean if you don't mind waiting two hours in line to take a tram up the side of the mountain. Not a big deal because we knew that we were in the middle of a big Asian holiday. What we didn't expect was that the line must have been full of the Koreans we thought we had left behind. When the timid Chinese guard opened the gate to line up in front of the trolley you would have thought we were in a mosh pit at a Grateful Dead concert rather than going for a scenic ride up a mountain to see the city. The crowd surged forward in a mass like they were running from the Bolshavik Commies. I was amazed no one got trampled. However after our bone crushing wait in line was over we got to ride this tram train car almost vertically up the side of the mountain. Great views! There we watched the sun slide below the horizon on one of the most famous skylines in the world. Peace, serenity and what an amazing view. I'm gonna love Hong Kong.

IT'S VEGAS BABY

So if Asians like to gamble there are not a lot of places to do it. The only casino in Seoul is only open to foreigners. Then there's Macau island, where gambling is not only allowed but it makes their world turn. After an hour on the ferry from Hong Kong I was expecting a shabby little island town but was I in for a surprise. It's Vegas Baby! Lights shows and sparking lights everywhere. But you're gonna pay cause it's expensive. Having said that before plunging into the hedonistic strip we went to see the colonial past and that was were the real magic was. Plazas and piazzas, castles and churches, chaos and serenity all built on top of each other. We thought we were in Europe taken over by Asia. Great architecture and history everywhere. We even stopped to catch the end of Mass from the square behind the cathedral.

IT'S A DIFFERENT WORLD

From Hong Kong we flew across the sea of China to the Philippines. Welcome to Paradise...and sunburns for us pink skinned people. As our plane flew into Porta Princessa from the Capital of Manila we knew our standard of living was about to change. I mean we arrived on a 373 and there was a terminal off the runway but after we walked down the stairs from the plane we were pointed to a lean to attached to the side of the building. There was an outdoor luggage rack which sort of worked. Most of us walked over t0 the baggage handlers cart and grabbed our own bags before it rained on them Then as we were checking in with the passport guy who used a flashlight to read our documents a little toad ran for cover from the impending downpour under our feet. At this point we realized we were not in Kansas, or Korea for that matter, anymore.