HONG KONG, August 28 — My flight from the USA to here was a tedious 15-hour affair. Those of you who fly coach know what I mean: hard seats, minimal legroom, insufficient recline angle. To make it worse, while I arrived in Chicago well ahead of schedule, the plane to Hong Kong sat at the gate for an hour while the maintenance crew fixed some undefined mechanical problem and topped off the tanks. Now, I agree it’s important to make sure your 747 works right while cruising 11 km (35,000 ft) up in the air and has enough fuel to arrive at its destination, but it seems these standard fix-its could have been done either quicker or before boarding the passengers. Poo on you, United.
I did travel further north than I have before, since we went over the top of the world. Whether I should count that as a personal travel milestone depends on whether I bend my own rules. Marking the farthest points north, east, west or south I’ve traveled on a map has meant I have actually touched land, not flown over it or wandered around an airport. The farthest north I’ve been has been Reykjavik, Iceland, just a notch below the Arctic Circle. Our route to Hong Kong crossed the circle twice, north of Canada’s northern territories and north of Siberia.
If I could have actually seen the ground (or ice floes, as the case may be), I suppose I could fudge the rules and bump Iceland as an also-ran. As it turned out, the entire top of the world seemed to under a thick layer of clouds. So was Siberia and most of China, too. The clouds lifted in time for me to catch a beautiful view of Hong Kong and its harbours. Alas, I cannot offer you any pictures of it, because of circumstances I shall explain later.
Originally, our flight was to take 14 hours, before the one-hour gate delay. There were headwinds part of the way, too, so our actual time to Hong Kong was closer to 15.5 hours — we didn’t actually touch ground until 5:45 pm Hong Kong time.
During the flight, I tried to sleep, but it was more like dozing. I just cannot fall asleep sitting up in an airline seat, no matter how tired I am. So I did the best I could to maintain a functional level of wakefulness. If I could put off real sleep until arriving at my hotel, I could sleep well during the night and wake up synchronized with local time. (It worked, by the way. I woke up Friday morning at 5:30 fully refreshed, as they say. My family will be amazed; I never wake up that early normally.)
Hong Kong International Airport is one of those sprawling affairs that require you to walk a lot, take a shuttle train, then walk some more. Everything is well marked in both Chinese and English, with appropriate arrows and pictograms, so you can’t get lost. The first step of course is to go through passport control. Unlike its associate, the mainland government, Hong Kong does not require visas in advance of arrival. You get your passport stamped at the airport.
From there, I was pleasantly surprised to find my big wheelie duffle actually followed me to Hong Kong. So, after placing my bags on a free luggage cart (no stupid coin slots to deal with, as in the USA), I passed through customs (nothing to declare — I’m traveling light), I proceeded to the hotel shuttle service desks.
I could have taken the cheaper route, taking the metro line’s Airport Express, which would have cost me about 50 cents in US currency, but I was bone tired and in no state to lug a 20-kg (44-lb) bag around an unfamiliar city’s metro system. So I opted for the door-to-door service of the Airport HoteLink coaches. Cost: HK$120, or about US$16. My hotel is about 45 minutes from the airport, so by the time I arrived at the YMCA International House (now known The CityView) it was close to 9:00 pm local time and dark. (No daylight saving time here.)
Feeling as wrung out as I was, I could see my plan to stay in Hong Kong one night and leaving the next day for the mainland was not a good idea. I booked the room for another night (US$85), so I could explore my travel options with a clear mind the next day.
The CityView is an architecturally clean, modern hotel on a par with a Radisson or Holiday Inn in the US. Not at all what you would expect the YMCA to be operating, which might explain the name change … marketing. My room is smaller than US standards, more like a Motel 6, but you get two comfy beds, a minifridge, a room safe, a TV (with 14 channels skewed toward news and business — HK is a commercial powerhouse after all) and a decently sized bathroom.
Turning the lights on took me a minute to figure out. Your keycard also serves to turn on your room’s electrical power. Next to the door is a slot; as long as the keycard is in the slot, the room has power. Nice energy-saver. Beside the bed is a master control box, allowing you to operate all of the room’s lights and the TV, set the room temperature, and of course have an alarm clock, all without leaving your bed.
I stayed up only long enough to log onto the Internet and email the folks back home. Once finished, I was sound asleep in minutes.
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