Hands Up !!! - Don't Shoot !!!! Hong Kong Coast Guard Boat

Seeing this patrol boat reminds Beth and I of a good story. Beth, a former colleague David Ferguson, and I were in Hong Kong in about 1993 or so. The three of us had led a Mayors trip to Taiwan and were decompressing.  We took a bus out to the far side of Hong Kong Island and enjoyed a nice dinner overlooking the ocean.

When it was time to go back I figured it would be more fun to take a Sampan back instead of the bus. So I waived a passing Sampan down and negotiated a ride back to Kowloon.  The Sampan Captain spoke no English and I had no Chinese but he figured out what we wanted and we did the deal. This was not a tourist boat, just a regular Sampan.

Beth wanted no part of this deal and said she would take the bus back. Dave and I each grabbed an elbow and shanghaied her on to the boat.  We had a lovely boat ride as the sun slowly set and day turned into night. It was beautiful and I was pleased.

Then a patrol boat just like the one pictured above came out of the dark night with their searchlight blinding us, with the Coast Guard cops with M-16's aimed at directly at us. The Sampan Captain raised his hands and we followed suit.  The Captain ducked into the Sampan and we wondering what was up.  I hoped he was not coming out with an AK-47. He just brought out his papers and they let us go on our way.

I think they were looking for smuggling, but not sure.  It seemed to me they were a bit serious for just smuggling.

This happened a total of three times.  Each time the patrol boat came up with M-16's aimed directly at us.  Beth was not overly happy.  I figure any time someone aims a rifle at you and you don't get shot it is a good thing. It made for a memorable story.