2009 - Day 1

Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2009 7:49 AM

Subject: Day 1

The trip over was uneventful, albeit long.   I flew on a 747 from Minneapolis to Tokyo – still think of Grandpa every time.  I thought for a moment we were not going to be able to leave Minneapolis.  After the plane had been de-iced and we were taxiing toward the runway we heard a loud thump from the right side of the plane.  A moment later, one of the pilots came down the stairs in a hurry and began examining the right wing through the windows – not particularly a confidence inspiring moment.  I suspect it was a chunk of ice which had slid off of the top of the fuselage and struck the top of the wing – no damage apparently.  This is my first time traveling to China in coach, and I must admit I’ve been spoiled with Business Class.  Nineteen hours in a coach seat leaves you sore, but after hearing my cousin Jim tell of his experience traveling in a C-130 on a hard fold down seat while hugging an 80 pound pack on his lap, I guess should quit whining.

I am traveling with someone else this time; one of our Engineers who has never been to Asia.  He is a small town Minnesota native whose prior travel experience is strictly of the Caribbean cruise ship variety.  It will be interesting to see how he reacts to some of the more colorful aspects of China.

We arrived in Hong Kong late, around 11:00 PM local time and thankfully my luggage arrived with me this time!!  We cleared customs and the medical screening which consists of passing by a thermal imaging camera designed to spot anyone running a fever, and filling out a questionnaire (Have you been in contact with anyone suspected of being infected with H1N1 in the past 30 days?, etc…).  After SARS and the bird flu killed so many in Hong Kong, they take no chances.  If you are running a fever, you will be quarantined – period.  We arrived at the hotel around midnight.  By this time I had been up for over 30 hours but I was not the least bit sleepy – adrenaline I guess.  Kevin (my engineer) was in the same state so we decided to meet in the hotel bar after checking in and dropping off our bags.  The bar was very busy and had a live band, well sort of anyway.  The band consisted of a guitar player with a poor sense of timing, a drum machine, and two very attractive ladies in tight silk outfits singing the absolute worst harmonies I have ever heard from someone who presumably gets paid to perform – I had to make sure it wasn’t karaoke night – it wasn’t.  To make matters worse, the songs were mostly disco and pop hits from the 70’s (“Love, Love will keep us together…”).  We decided this was simply too painful to endure so we ventured outside and found an Irish pub in the basement of a nearby building – one I had visited before.  Guinness makes a great sedative.

It’s a strange thing, but there seem to be “working girls” everywhere in this part of Kowloon.  The hotel bar has them and their presence is obvious – they are dressed as you would expect.  This seems especially unusual because this is far from a seedy hotel – it is really quite nice and has what appears to be a pretty affluent clientele (not sure why the let me in) and I can’t really figure why the management would allow the activity.  Oddly enough, even the pub had a couple.  They were dressed in normal clothes and were not aggressive in any way, but they subtly got their motive across and if you don’t signal your intent to connect, they leave you alone. It is also obvious that the management of the pub knows what they are up to.  I can’t believe the hotel especially would benefit enough financially from their activity to make it worth their collaboration – makes you think something else is up.  There is a history of organized crime in Hong Kong and I would be willing to bet they have a hand in this.

Anyway, a couple of pints later the hours started to catch up with us so we headed back to the hotel and sleep came quickly – thank you Guinness!

Day two preview

Kevin and I have dinner and don’t have enough cash to pay the bill…