Getting a new stamp in my passport (Hong Kong to Hanoi)

At 5:30 am I find myself very very hungry again ;-(
So I decide to head out of the hotel to walk to the 7/11 at the ferry pier for some more yogurt.

This place reminds me of Saint Malo; I could watch this landscape change colour, shape, and brightness for hours.

Thank  you Corona, I think I found another one ;-)

I check out at 10:30 am to keep my options open. 

Either walk to the ferry terminal and take a bus to the airport soonish or go back to the cooked food market by the  water and have another fried fish on rice and take a taxi after eating.  

 When I get to the transit hub I can't see a single taxi cab, so I run into 7/11, buy and down another yogurt, and line up at the bus stop.

NO, a good lock alone isn't enough!

My ride leaves here

I never realized how hilly Lantau Island is and how steep the roads are here until the well-powered bus creeps up various curvy and narrow pass roads only to barrel down the other side.  

The bus gets me to Tung Chung, also the site of the Ngong 360 skyride. 

A little bit of directional help from a lovely older Western lady (You look lost!. Are You?) and a 3 minute walk to another bus stop gets me to the airport bus. EASY!

Then I am there:  Vietnam Airlines check-in counter. No line-up?  I can go right to the counter? They really Really REALLY  don't want to  see my visa this time?

4 minutes later I am in possession of a boarding pass to Hanoi. WOW!




I turn around and stare straight at the Air Canada check-in counter. So that's where the lines are ;-)

Hunger makes me commit a mistake again after I cross the security cordon.  I eat at CAFE DECO.

Mediocre but expensive food and overworked and consequently inefficient and grumpy staff. 

NO, Basmati should not obtain its yellow colour from being fried in curry. And serving dry chicken in pure yellow grease still doesn't make it anything else than dry chicken in grease.

 DO NOT go there!

Then it's time to take one of those annoying shuttle buses that always just seems to sit there (either utterly devoid or unbearably packed with passengers) to take us to the p

And then it's time to fly again, this time over a fabulous blue ocean dotted with those tiny white clouds.

When the ocean below changes to rivers, hills, and obviously inhabited areas, the strange feeling I had on this whole flight becomes overwhelming.  

I have a very similar view as US pilots did not even 50 years ago.  But  they weren't looking forward to experiencing a new culture or seeing new sights.  Weren't bringing chocolate to see delight in children's eyes.

They brought death instead.

   
I was alive then !

And please don't fool yourself.  This is not something like the 30-year war of the middle ages.  This happened recently.  And you can bet it's happening somewhere on this sad planet today.

Rice patties ! 

Runway work at No Bai airport:  There are the hats !!!!

Immigration is fast and after 10 minutes in a line, I get my STAMP !!!!