Impression on HK...

19/02/2005

On board of Cathay Pacific, time 1.04pm, distance to destination (Hong Kong) 5768 miles, duration of flight: 11:04h, and EAT is 7.06 am... I just briefly had a look on the screen while the sound of the Chinese music from the speakers above my head was playing, and others settled into their seats.

I was next to a young Taiwanese, she was leaving Holland after visiting her Dutch boyfriend, and returned from their holidays. The first impression I got was that she looked like a businesswoman, she had quite heavy make up, and obviously not the first time she was in Holland or flew with Cathay Pacific airline.

The capital gave some info on the flight, it would take about 20' to get out of Schiphol airport, strong wind, weather was sunny although in HK, there was a cool air coming, therefore the temperature was less than 10 degree celcius.

Anyway, I was ready, seat belt fasten..etc and the engine of the plane was started, we were going up, up, up...!

Food was ok, not so bad although I had much better experiences with Singapour airlines at the same price. At mid-night, the Taiwanese asked for a cup of instant noodle, I asked for one as well ;-) mmm. Somebody had a stroke, so the cabine crew was requesting whether there was any doctor on the plane...here he came, mmm tall and good looking!!

Curious passengers were asked to return to their seats, I continued watching my Chinese movie, and fell asleep.

20/02/2005

Arriving HK

It took some time to get through the custom area for my "strange passport"...When the custom officer stamped on my passport, I noticed a sentence written on the door that I was about to go through "Please pass for your body temperature control", clearly SAR outbreak was not yet forgotten. Some people still wore masks.

I went outside, and had no idea whether Fox was going to pick me up or not since I sent a few text messages when I was still in Europe but he didn't get back. My mobile was not functioning at all in HK, no network available. So, I decided to get on the train to the city, and went to the hotel that we booked.

A return train ticket costs about 190HKD, so I bought the ticket, and got on the train. The train is very modern, clean...The view outside was impressive!!! On my right side, there was green trees, hills, and sea, but on my left side, gosh, building, building, building...not even building, the exact word is skycrappers! I have ever seen that many skycrappers (probably because I did not travel a lot), but that view was something that I would remember for some time!!! Hugh, gyant buildings were just one next to another, and so tight that I had the feeling they were falling on my head and just next to me!!

After the airpport shuttle dropped me at the hotel, I went in and asked for Fox, but he left already (later it turned Fox went to the airport to pick me up), so I left a note for him saying that I would be at Starbuck cafe to wait for him(not so clear because I didn't know that there were so many Starbucks around the corner, and since Fox likes coffee there, I thought we should meet there, but there were quite a few of them...). Then, I took a walk on "Nathan Road", big shopping street. There are plenty of colourful neon light billboards there in HK besides the skycrappers, the city is busy, most of HK people look like they are in a hurry, rush...It felt like I was gone with the flow of the people on the street... HK people are very fashionable, look very happy, and commercial. I had the impression that there were more foreigners in this city than Chinese themselves.

When I tried to ask for directions, some people just kept on walking but smiling, they probably do not understand English but thought it would be rude to not smile or something. After a while, I realised that our hotel's location (Langham hotel) is very good, it is on Peking road, just in the center, easy access to other islands...