When we arrive in Hong Kong from Beijing, we lose one student in the airport and spend a lot of time trying to figure out which one (of 98) it is. It turns out to be a girl who blithely leaves for the Hong Kong Island Central by express train without telling any of the tour or bus leaders. The one other student she does tell doesn’t say anything until we’ve called roll call for what seems like the hundredth time. Forget the mild option of assigning Animal-Farm barcodes to individuals; I express interest in branding barcodes on their foreheads. When she finally does show up at the ship, the wayward and inconsiderate student will get what is known as “dock time” for delaying 97 other people.

Two hours later we finally get through the check-in process at the ship and I am a free woman. It is wonderful to shake off worrying about where exactly nearly 100 people are for four solid days. I get out and walk for four hours through the bustling city streets of Kowloon. It’s a Sunday evening and I even have time to clean up and dress and take afternoon tea at the old historic Peninsula Hotel on Salisbury Road with a string ensemble playing in the venerable old lobby with very good tea, sandwiches and cakes. Expensive but worth it in every respect. I find the International Herald Tribune in a small shop nearby, the only form of the New York Times available by that time of the day, and am lucky to get the proprietor to take mainland currency since I don’t readily find an ATM until later in the evening. When I get back to the ship Warner and Nancy find me just back and we go back out again to explore the night stalls near Nathan Road. We make it back to the ship with Chinese Woolite in tow (to clean the pile of winter clothes I will now retire for the remainder of the voyage) just in time to sample a Hong Kong Sling in the ship’s top-deck bar before it closes. Again, the ship affords a spectacular view of the buildings on the two waterfronts of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Island.