First trip - Day 3 continued

Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 2:30 AM

Subject: Asia - Day 3 continued

The flight to Hong Kong was very pleasant.  I flew in another 747 (thought of Grandpa Galloway again), this time a Cathay Pacific airlines.  I shared the front first class section with only one other person.  I don’t think the plane was very full.  We took off on time near dusk, around 7:00 PM.  I was struck by the number of ships anchored offshore, I could not count them, but there must have been at least 100 large ships, I presume waiting to unload. 

The flight was around 4 hours long and followed a course up the Malay peninsula, over the coast of Vietnam, and then across the South China Sea to Hong Kong.  Following my afternoon walking around Singapore in the midday heat, I was very drowsy after dinner and I fell asleep an hour into the flight.  I slept for over 2 hours, waking up just before we began our descent.  There were scattered large clouds over the city, and some lightning off to the north, so I could not see much on approach.  I had pretty clear instructions on how to get to the hotel, but I was a bit nervous about the language barrier.  The Hong Kong airport is immaculate, very large, and efficient.  Signs were all in English and Mandarin (or maybe Cantonese, I can’t tell) so getting around was easy.  I took an underground train to the main terminal, found the baggage carousel, grabbed my bags, and headed to immigration.  The lines were fairly long but moved quickly.  Once through immigration, I found a stand which sells tickets on the Airport Express, one of the city’s many subways, bought my one-way ticket to Kowloon station, and found the foreign exchange desk where I surrendered the last of my US Dollars for Hong Kong Dollars.  I should have found an ATM, I don’t think the exchange rate was as good as it should have been, but I was tired. 

The Airport Express is a very modern train line which connects the Airport, the AsiaWorld Expo (convention center), and the city center.  The train was clean with a nice electronic display in each car indicating where the train is at all times.  The ride to Kowloon, which is across the harbor from the main island of Hong Kong, takes around 25 minutes.  I had been advised to Steven and Achim in Singapore to avoid the Hong Kong taxi’s because they often don’t speak English and may take you on a “scenic tour”.  Unfortunately, the hotel shuttles were done running for the night so I had no alternative.  Fortunately the ride was quick and cheap, around $25 HK, around $4 US.    On the way I was really amazed by the Hong Kong skyline, very big, many very tall buildings, colorful lights.  I hope to see more of this tomorrow. 

Kowloon is difficult to describe so I will send some pictures, too tired to think.  More tomorrow.