HONG KONG: MIND FENG SHUI

What happens to a honeymoon after the marriage ends? Does it disintegrate? Or does it endure beyond the door that has shut between two people, between two rooms that were once connected?

We went to China for our honeymoon, for three weeks. We flew in and out of Hong Kong. From Hong Kong, we took the overnight boat to Guandong, flew to Guilin, took the boat along the Li River to Yangshou, took the boat from Yanghsou back to Guilin, flew to Kunming, took a bus to Dali, along the old Burma Road, took a bus back to Kunming, again, along the old Burma Road, flew back to Hong Kong, flew back home.

We saw women fighting in the airport. We saw a dog being roasted in a market. We rode the bus with the man with the smelliest feet in the world. We saw corrupt officials driving a black Cadillac though the provincial countryside. We met an artist, who invited us to his apartment. He showed us political cartoons he'd drawn, of corrupt officials driving a black Cadillac through the provincial countryside. He sold us art. He served us tea.

We had a running argument in Dali. I wanted to go to Lijiang. He didn’t want to go to Lijiang. In the end, we didn’t go to Lijiang. I think he was afraid the Naxi, one of China’s ethnic minorities, might influence me. They live in a matriarchal system, or the vestiges of one.

Coming and going, we stayed several nights in Hong Kong. While we were there, my son’s father mailed me an oversize postcard on the sly, a photograph of the Hong Kong skyline at night, with two words written on it: “Remember this.”

It was in the mail when we got back from our honeymoon. "Remember this." And I do. Only what I remember is mostly a trip without him, as if I had taken in the sounds and sights of Hong Kong and China on my own. It remains one of the great trips of my life.

This one, a five-night trip to Hong Kong, closes Friday March 31 at 11:59 ET.

Go for it.

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HONG KONG 5-NIGHT GETAWAY

DEADLINE: March 31, 2006
TO ENTER, CLICK: www.continentalflyaway.com/EntryForm/
SPONSOR: In-Flight Media Associates, Continental Airlines Vacations, China Tourism Company
THE DIGS: www.miramarhk.com
THE INELIGIBLES: N/A
ARV (APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE): $3,000
FINE PRINT: Must travel by April 1, 2007
MY PERSONAL ENTRY: March 29, 2006
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Photo Credit: Jeremy Levy dreamstime.com