A tourist boat is seen along Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong in 2008.
It’s summertime in Hong Kong, and that can only mean one thing: the junk trip. Not the traditional Chinese sailing junk, mind. These days, “junk” refers to practically any kind of leisure vessel. On weekend days during the season, dozens of them pull up at the public piers in Central or Causeway Bay, and groups up to 40-strong board them for eight hours of crazed drinking at sea. With everybody going for a departure time of 10 or 11 a.m. to maximize daylight hours on the water, the piers are a hot mess of humanity and a perfect weekend cover for our whistle-blower. Once he’s aboard, everyone will assume the quiet goateed guy in the corner sipping beer is the friend of a friend. By the time the SEALs realize he’s given them the slip, Snowden will be on one of countless identical pleasure craft bound for the coves of Sai Kung peninsula.