December 25, 2024

PANAMA CITY SKYSCRAPERS - Day 2

My favorite port days are when I am in small group with friends sharing a common interest. Day 2 in Panama City was all that! I love architecture and always go out of my way to see the cool shapes up close and try to know the stories of how they came to be. I tried to use the Panama IA resource - but they needed more notice to set up a tour. So, I did a bunch of internet searches and came up with my own plan to investigate the skyscraper zone of Panama City. The HOHO bus didn't go there, you just saw the building in the distance.  Turns out Scott and the Little/ Olson Family shared my interest, and we came up with a whole game plan for day 2. First, I hired an Uber XL to take the 6 of us to the furthest Building of Interest, The original TRUMP Ocean Club - now a JW Marriott. We evaluated the uber comfort - great AC and decent leg room for all, the language skills of drive with Scott and Whitney's spanish language skills and the drivers overall knowledge of city. Turns out we got the PERFECT UBER driver, his uncle was an architect and he knew alot about the city and all it's landmarks. We asked him if we could hire him for rest of day at $15/hr/ car load - he was thrilled and so were we!

Traffic in the CIty was very slow moving, due to all the people in and shopping for Holidays. The stand stills were great for us because we got to see so much of the skyline. Here are some of the best we saw. F&F Tower an office building called El Tornillo - tornado is the most unique!   
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In sharp contrast we left down town wealthy Ex pat neighborhoods and went to old town - El Barro - original old city, still occupied by some of the lowest income levels of people in town. They have a heavy police presence in this area to keep things calm.

Whitney had read about the making of Molas fabric by indigenous women and found us a free museum to visit in old town, afterwards we went to French Market place where they sold Molas products, I got a lovely unique bag from sweet lady, Kids got shaved ice and Whitney got some original fabrics to use as runners in her villa. We walk through more of old town and got a fun group photo.

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Next, we were off to our last Architectural stop, the Frank Gehry Bio Museo, his only project in Latin America. Have to say we were all disappointed in it's poor construction and had little interest up close. Then onto our final stop, the Duty Free Liquor store then back to ship. In total, we were with driver 5 hours after initial uber ride, had a lot of laughs and really enjoyed the day!

The Oreo Gang and Our great Uber driver guide!

ENTERING HONG KONG HARBOR

By Pat Patrick • September 1, 2026
On Saturday August 29, 2026 we achieved another historic milestone on this circumnavigation of the World , we cruised into Hong Kong Harbor. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. The land encompassed by Hong Kong is confusing. It includes part of the southern coast of mainland China, just below Shenzhen, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories . Looking at a map helps, but the rules changed so many times! I asked my buddy Chat several times, to tell me if what I was looking at was the Hong Kong that the British had owned for years. The answer was never straight forward!

HA LONG BAY, VIETNAM

By Pat Patrick • August 31, 2026
Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is one of those bucket list places I have had in my sights for years. It's the iconic picture in my mind's eye, whenever I think of Vietnam . We had made plans to go with 8 others on a brand new, swanky Red Dragon Junk boat for a harbor cruise and overnight stay, but sadly the weather did not cooperate the whole 4 days we were in port. No ships were permitted to sail, per the local government. Many of us were bummed! This is typhoon session and there was a lot of rain and high winds our first couple of days - we were hoping it would blow out the last day and we could at least do a day trip but no luck! 

HAI VAN PASS to HUE, VIETNAM

By Pat Patrick • August 30, 2026
To get to the final stop on our Vietnam FUN Tour in Hue, we had our driver take us on the scenic route called the Hai Van Pass. This 3 hour drive took us back through Da Nang and then into mountains and along coast for what is generally a very scenic route. Unfortunately for us, it was mainly covered in clouds and fog.