First morning in Hong Kong

The place I'm staying in is more like a private room within a youth hostel then a guesthouse. Crossed the street from the building with reception, down an alley way I wouldn't adventure if it was back home, and into a building with sleeping 'doorman', up 8th floor, down another corridor, and 2 gates into the corridor leading to my room. About 7m2, and with what will be the norm through my Asia stays, a shower over the toilet. Most places keep the shower just in case in addition to a regular shower area, but here it was all-in-one. The room and 'bathroom' was super clean, so all good. The funniest thing was Tommy, the owner, proudly announced I had a room with window. There was indeed a window, but it overlooked the building across, if I extended my arms I could nearly touch the opposite wall, so no light from that window, and as it turns out I never opened the curtains. I had a fantastic sleep, thanks to Melatonine pills and jet lag. I wpoke ip around 9am, somehow managed to get rid of jetlag before i even felt it. Adjusting my clock to Hong Kong time as I left San Francisco certainly helped. After organizing my stuff, I wandered the streets in search of breakfast, and ended up in what would become my internet fix, Cafe Pacific (or something like that). It's a chain available across town, like a deluxe Starbucks, with plush red velvet armchairs, subdued lighting, good coffee, and a few computers for customers. It's limited to 15 minutes, but it worked well & provided a small fix of emails.



I decided to hanfle my Vietnamese visa right away, and thanks to the above internet + google maps found the location in no time. The city is easy to navigate, with lots of signage everywhere, both for streets but also most monuments, and key areas. I ended up using mostly the tram, my favorite, altough in the end I will have used all tranportation: taxi (dirt cheap & fast), regular bus (like the London double decker buses), mini bus/van (seat 12 people), subway, and ferry boat of course. There is plenty of fog and pollution, but in retrospect, nothing like Bangkok. It's all relative... My guesthouse is in Causeway Bay, lively and with one main advantage, not one foreigner in sight besides my reflection in the mirrors. At the Vietnamese Ambassy I praise the numerous blogs I read before departure, with some handy tips like take passport pix with you. Indeed, came in handy to get my Visa, took 15 minutes all in all.

Arrival in Hong Kong

I arrived into Hong Kong around 11.30pm, couldn't stay awake on the last leg of the flight, but doubt this will keep me from sleeping tonight. The Hong Kong airport is huge, super modern, like arriving at New York customs, but nicer, welcome included. Zip zap, no luggage to wait for, I'm out in no time. I get a metro card called Octopus, and a sim card. The Airport Express takes me to the centre in 20 minutes, (it's like the Heathrow Express), but there is no more hotel shuttle by the time I get there. The sim card comes in handy, as I take the subway and call the guesthouse 'en route' with change of plans (they were picking me up at shuttle stop). The metro system is fabulous, massive, HUGE. They have plasma screens too keep you entertained while you wait for the train, and little electronic indicators once you are on the train to know where you are & where to get off.

And so it begins...

Tuesday January 8th
Get up at 6am for last minute stuff, including packing. Micou comes over for breakfast, except there is no breakfast, as I am taking my last Typhoid vaccine, and cannot eat. Coffee & just coffee for her, sorry Micou! She doesn't hold a grudge, and still helps me get ready with the best chores: dishes, garbage, etc. Yep, friends:-) I drop her at her work, middle of nowhere but very convenient to get back on highway to airport, 15 minutes later my rental car was handed back and I was in the shuttle to the airport. I only had hand luggage (and praise www.onebag.com for this), had printed my boarding pass, so another 15 minutes and I was in front of my gate. Way too early! Checked the Northwest Lounge, nothing much, but very quiet. They served Fetzer wine, thought of Rick.

The excitement of the morning was being able to squeeze my toothpaste through security, even though it's bigger then the 3oz bottle allowance. Ah, the little joys of modern travel. Finally time to board, on the plane got 2 seats to myself, very comfy with tons of movies (ok, not as many as on Virgin Atlantic). I ended up watching "Into the Wild" and "The Beach". 2 journeys, that's about all the similarities.

I had requested Vegetarian Asian when I picked my seats. Don't ask me why, I guess I thought I wouldn't have enough Asian food on this trip. Anyway, main meal was blend, but the snack was fabulous: some sort of sauteed potatoes with steamed apples and warm peaches:-) Unusual but very yummy.

I had a change of flight in Tokyo, the area around my boarding gate for next flight was straight out of a so so cool artsy club. White leather multi-level couches, ambient lights, you can get an idea from the picture.