Hong Kong

Monday was a hectic day. Tai Jin was to pick me up at 10:45, and I had a few errands I needed to complete. The most important were some prescription refills. Unfortunately, the pharmacy was out of stock for a couple drugs, and I had to arrange replacement prescriptions.

Still, I was ready to go, and was checked in. I couldn't find the first class lounge, but that didn't matter. I was in seat 4-E to Tokyo. My goal was to stay awake for the flight; I don't want jet lag in China. For this trip, I decided to bring my laptop, as I could then directly record my journal onto disk.

Two meals were served, one was a peppercorn beef with smoked duck, the other was a breakfast on arrival. Odd to eat breakfast before dinner. At about 7:55 PM San Francisco time, we crossed the dateline, and it became Tuesday.

Flying in, we were delayed by Typhoon Danas, that was hitting Japan. There were winds and thunder, but much had passed. The result was delays. I was supposed to have a 2 hour layover, it was closer to three, as the flight from New York to which I was connecting was even later.

The flight to Hong Kong also passed over a second Typhoon, Nora. I was able to watch the lightening of the typhoon, that was interesting. A second dinner was served, this time smoked salmon and beef curry.

As I was watching the typhoon, tragedy hit New York and Washington. I was unaware of this until I landed in Hong Kong. I am appalled.

It took 30 minutes to clear immigration in the new airport, greatly delayed by having 8 officers for 2 arriving 747's. My luggage was already on the carousel. I was unable to call the US from the airport; I found an ATM that finally worked on the fourth try (Network problems, please try again later.) Hong Kong was partially blacked out.

Hong Kong Skyline

There were four others on the trip on this flight, so we waited for them to exit customs. We finally reached the Intercontinental Hotel after midnight. I watched the television until 4AM, I am stunned at the news. I can't sleep.

I finally managed to get three hours of sleep, I am certain this messed up my jet lag recovery plan. I also was not hungry. I needed to fill the prescription, and that meant a visit to the hotel's medical clinic. They have the same drug here, and I made arrangements to have it filled.

My next stop was the new Hong Kong history museum. This opened last month and received a favorable review in the New York Times. There were two floors of exhibits, the bottom floor is more of a natural history museum, going back 400,000,000 years explaining the geology of the island and the New Territories. It continued until the British role in Hong Kong began.

The top floor started with the Opium Wars, and continued through 1997. This was surprisingly well balanced. About the only possible propaganda was the Chinese Communists running the resistance to Japan; then again the nationalists weren't popular anyway, so it may be true. I guess the biggest surprise is that there was more hostility toward Japan for the Second World War than there was toward the British for more than a century of colonial occupation.

After the museum visit, I went to lunch. Naturally, I went for dim sum. Har gau, siu mai, spring rolls, crab dumplings. Not inexpensive, the total bill approached HK$190, over $20 US.

After lunch I went to the bird garden. This is the relocated bird market, that used to be near Mongkok and is now off Prince Edward Avenue. Lots of birds and bird cages. A surprising variety, including warblers, white-eyes, and bluebirds.

After the lack of sleep the night before, I took a short nap (3 hours) back at the hotel. I didn't intend to, but I guess I just collapsed. My prescription arrived, HK$792, Ouch. I headed out for dinner at Koh-i-noor, gosht vindaloo. I then wandered around Kowloon at night, for a while before heading back to the hotel and logging in.

I slept for 7 hours, and it feels like I may be on Hong Kong time. The breakfast today was a part of the tour, with some dim sum and fried noodles, and waffles. Definitely an unusual combination.

The official R Crusoe tour started today. I am at least a decade younger than my fellow travelers, and perhaps am two decades younger. I guess this should not have been a surprise. We had an orientation briefing, and then headed out for the day's activities. The first destination was a harbor crossing on the Star ferry. We walked along the waterfront for a short distance before the crossing. Since Hong Kong is built around a harbor, ferries and other sea-born transports are common.

Hong Kong has a skyline more reminiscent of Manhattan than any other place I've visited. It has the huge towers and steel canyons of the streets, but added to that is the backdrop of Victoria Peak. We were met by a bus that took us to the peak tram, a funicular that ascends to near the top of Hong Kong. It is run by an exposed cable so is similar to the cable cars of San Francisco.

I had been to the top of Victoria Peak before, and this time it was a bit more hazy than in 1996. I was a bit disappointed, as I wanted some more skyline pictures, but the southern tip of Kowloon was barely visible, so I put the camera away.

Instead of taking the tram back down, we took a bus, and had a second viewpoint on Stubbs Road. This was new, and different from what I had seen before, so I took a couple pictures despite the haze.

I'll admit I was feeling a little queasy in the bus, the roads were very winding (like the roads in West Virginia) and I am not accustomed to being a passenger.

We ended up at the China Club, in the Bank of China building, for lunch. This was a full Cantonese banquet, starting with kieu tieh, fried taro, spring rolls, har gau, and a vegetarian dumpling. Then they served sweet and sour pork (different from the one I cook: no water chestnuts or bamboo shoots) and sweet and sour fish. A steamed broccoli was served, and some fried rice finished the meal. It was delicious.

After lunch, we went to the southern part of the island, first to Deep Water and Repulse Bays, and finally to Aberdeen. In Aberdeen, we took a junk around the fishing port to see how the people lived. It was short, and I felt it was a wee bit squalid. We then headed back to the hotel.

The Intercontinental Hotel has been a good place to stay, except their network is not non-Windows friendly. Linux and Macs are not able to connect inexpensively, my data calls ran US$2/minute. I intend to address this to the chain headquarters, but I doubt it will have an effect.

Late in the afternoon, we had a lecture on the Hong Kong economy by the assistant director of the Hong Kong Group Chamber of Commerce. Ian Perkins gave a lively talk about the economy and changes in the last years since the Chinese takeover. After the talk I asked a few questions about the start-up economy.

Dinner was in the hotel's top restaurant, Yan Toh Heen. Many courses, a soup similar to egg flower soup with crab meat, barbecued pork and duck, sweet and sour groupa, braised lobster, and spiced beef. Finished off with seafood fried rice.

I was tired so I went to sleep.

Woke up after a solid night's sleep. Turns out my heels have been hurting because I've been forming some small blisters. Ouch. I watched the news for a while. I'll admit to feeling a bit guilty about enjoying myself when my fellow citizens are suffering. It certainly puts a damper on things.

Breakfast was again at the hotel, more dim sum, and French toast instead of waffles. The morning was spent on a fung shui lecture and tour. I'll admit that I am much more of a scientist and I view it as superstition, but it helps to understand the architectural decisions. The paving under the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank building is rippled, for example, because good energy would be stopped by the "water" under the building, and the escalators will direct the energy into the building.

Doesn't make sense to me, either.

The Bank of China building, designed by IM Pei, caused great consternation. Sharp edges are considered bad, and there are sharp edges in each of six directions. One edge was pointed at the HKSB, and to counter the negative energy, their cleaning cranes are now never retracted. They aim out, like angry dragons, to the Bank of China building.

By noon, a light rain had started in Hong Kong. We headed off to the Mandarin Hotel for lunch at Vongs, a Thai/fusion restaurant on the 25th floor. I had a scallop and leek soup (broth). My main course was lamb shanks in green curry and this was followed by licorice ice cream. OK, the ice cream was bad for me, but I couldn't resist.

After the lunch, we went to Ngan Ki Heung Tea House, where we were treated to a basic tea ceremony with kung fu tea and pearl jasmine tea. These were delicious. I bought some more teas, including a thirty year old black tea.

Next stop was a Buddhist temple, Man Mo temple, with the gods of literature and war. A lot of incense, which smelled pleasant to me. Maybe brings back memories of masking the smell of certain herbs...

After this, we ended up driving to the airport for the flight to Guilin. We passed the American Consulate, which had opened for the first time since the bombing. There were a large number of flowers stacked outside the gate. It was a touching scene.

On checking in at Hong Kong, I became a wee bit angry. I had paid a bit extra for a first class upgrade on each of the internal flights in China, and I was not upgraded on this leg. I called my travel agent back in the states to inquire into what happened, and asked our tour leader a bit about it. I later learned that they wondered why I didn't upgrade this leg, but the office did not inquire.

I was initially given a window seat, but asked it to be changed to an aisle seat as far forward as possible. I should have realized they were putting us in a block of nine seats, three rows of three, but my ire clouded my perspective. Then again, I'd not have been happy in that arrangement, anyway.

Hong Kong's new airport reminded me a lot of Stansted airport in London. Just a huge open space with what appears to be a fabric roof. The gates are so far from the main terminal they have a regular train system connecting them (an improvement on Dulles's people movers, and reminiscent of Atlanta's system.)

The flight for Guilin left on time.